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The Emporia => A Good Yarn => Topic started by: LeilaMay on November 11, 2017, 14:09:27 PM

Title: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: LeilaMay on November 11, 2017, 14:09:27 PM
As well as sewing and knitting I also make lace. I've had a few years off due to one thing and another, but now I'm looking to get cracking again :)Although my preference is Bucks Point, I'm starting with a graded set of 10 Torchon bookmarks to get back into things.
Here are the first two.

Anyone else make lace?

 :pin:
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Lowena on November 11, 2017, 14:12:12 PM
Someone does, I think it might be Brenda, or Efemera, or both.
I'd love to start, I have some of the gear, just lack the knowledge  :D
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: LeilaMay on November 11, 2017, 14:21:28 PM
You might be able to find a local group - that's how I learnt :)

p.s. 'some gear' you GOT to say what now, preferably with pics LOL
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: BrendaP on November 11, 2017, 17:40:49 PM
Yes Low, post some pics of your "some gear".

I taught bobbin lacemaking for twenty-odd years for local education classes, though I don't do a lot now.  I still go to a local group once a month; that was yesterday, and I'm now very nearly at the end of the scarf I'm making.  Large scale torchon (Jane Atkinson type stuff) is what I like doing best, I also enjoyed making Bucks and Beds though my skills will be very rusty by now.

I haven't updated that part of my website for ages.
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/lace/lace.html (http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/lace/lace.html)
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Ploshkin on November 11, 2017, 17:54:26 PM
It's something I've always thought I should do because my Maltese great grandmother was a lace maker.  Perhaps when I'm too decrepit for farming or beekeeping ......
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Acorn on November 11, 2017, 18:03:51 PM
I did a little years and years ago, and have always meant to take it up again, but it does require time and concentration.  If everyone (and the housework) would leave me alone for a while I might get on with it!

I have some gear, but it isn't really photo-worthy - a polystyrene cushion covered with fabric and a selection of bobbins, mostly plastic but some wood, with beads.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: BrendaP on November 11, 2017, 18:09:39 PM
Plastic bobbins are fine, so long as you've got glass (heavy) beads on them.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Lowena on November 11, 2017, 18:49:41 PM
I have a polystyrene pillow, plastic bobbins, a selection of beads and wire(?) to fix them and an instruction card....... trouble is, I can't understand the instructions so I have never got as far as beading the bobbins  :| I've had the kit for years and would love to have a go
pins... I have lots of thin brassy pins too ( who knows what for???? )
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Maximum on November 11, 2017, 20:07:48 PM
I did some bobbin lace years ago. I enjoyed making the weighted bead rings for the bobbins but the family complained that it was noisy when actually making lace!  Beyond bookmarks I really couldn't think of anything practical to make as I'm not into lace collars etc. I did make a lovely swan that I meant to mount on black card and frame but I have no idea where it is now. Some of the wooden bobbins are exquisite and the glass beads. Must dig it all out someday and have another go
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: BrendaP on November 11, 2017, 20:39:49 PM
Lowena, it's very difficult to learn bobbin lacemaking from written instructions only - some people do manage it but most need a real person there, at least for the beginning stages.  Are there any groups or classes near you.  The Lace Guild (https://laceguild.org/) have lists of classes and groups.  They have been having wi-fi/internet connection problems recently, from their Facebook page on Thursday:
As a short term measure there has been a temporary email address set up which can be used for urgent or time critical enquires to the Guild. Your message will be passed to the appropriate person to deal with. I would like to thank you all again for your patience and our staff for their support. Until further notice you can contact us on Laceguildoffice@gmail.com

The wire in your kit is to attach the beads to the ends of the bobbins.  As I said, plastic bobbins are fine but like all English Midlands bobbins, the beads are there to add weight.  If the beads in your kit are lightweight plastic ditch them and replace with glass beads.  Polystyrene pillows are fine, but they do need covering.  A layer of blanket or quilt wadding with a cotton outer cover, preferably a plain dark colour such as dark blue or bottle green.  The pins are used to hold the threads in place as the work progresses, but can come out after a couple of inches has has been worked - see Maximum's photos.  Brass pins are traditional and many people prefer them because they don't rust, but they do corrode if left in a pillow for too long and they do bend much easier than steel pins.  They don't need to be very fine if the thread is not very fine.  For regular 50/3 sewing cotton thickness and upwards 0.65mm pins are OK, you only need the finer 0.55 pins for anything finer.

One other thought, your kit and whatever instructions it includes is almost certainly aimed at starting with torchon lace.  That is what most lace teachers in UK start with, but down in Devon, and you are beyond Devon, they often start people on Honiton lace which is very fine, uses a different type of bobbin with no beads and the lace is made in small sections which are joined together.  Very different techniques and terminology, it's just the basic stitches which are the same.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: LeilaMay on November 12, 2017, 12:15:19 PM
Lovely to see other lace makers - sadly we're all too far apart to make a group!

I couldn't get the Lace Guild link (on their own page to 'groups' to give any info, I wonder if you can only access it if you are a member and logged in? Anyway I'm alright for now, but eventually it would be nice to find a group to join again :)
Good luck anyone who's just starting out

Leila
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: SingingSinger on November 12, 2017, 21:45:20 PM
I did a fair bit of bobbin lacemaking years ago and enjoyed it. I have a lace pillow with a 3/4s made lace collar on it which has sat unfinished for 20+ years. I wish I could remember what to do to finish it!
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: BrendaP on November 13, 2017, 00:38:57 AM
I think you need to contact The Lace Guild, email, phone or smail mail to ask what groups there are in your area.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: arrow on November 13, 2017, 01:48:46 AM
What do you call this in English? It has a relation to lace but here they call it something else. In this picture it's used along edges of a table cloth.

(http://www.nupereller.no/files/resize-of-skyttel-pa-lommetorkle.jpg)
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Kad on November 13, 2017, 06:39:47 AM
It's known as 'Tatting' and it's worked with one or two 'Tatting Shuttles'.
It can be worked as an  edging as in your photo and also as  mats etc in mech the same manner as crochet.

When I got married to DH many years ago I made my own veil which I edged with a narrow tatting  and also scattered individual picot flowers across the train of it.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Holly Berry on November 13, 2017, 11:34:52 AM
I don’t make lace but my Mum did. When she died I kept all her equipment in a large box, which sadly is still in the loft 13 years later. She had books on all the different English lace types as well as cushions, threads, bobbins and beads. Two of the cushions still have the pieces she was working on and I can’t bear to do anything with them, so they are all wrapped up in cotton pillow cases. I also have the templates for pricking out patterns.My dad used to make the bobbins for her on his lathe.

When I got married a friend of my Mum made me a lace crown which she sugar starched and it was attached to my veil. It was very difficult to keep on!
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: Starryfish on November 13, 2017, 16:04:01 PM
I took up lacemaking a couple of years ago, when my WI federation held some classes. I made my daughter a wedding garter this year, it took weeks, and my eyes suffered. I will do some again soon; there is a guild in my county (Bedfordshire) but I haven't joined yet.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: SingingSinger on March 15, 2021, 19:41:31 PM
@LeilaMay I've got my lace pillow and bobbins down and dusted down after years (decades?) of neglect. I've forgotten how to do it but have watched a beginner's YouTube video and I'm going to have a go. I must have done evening classes back in the late 80s/early 90s and remember going to a lace fayre. Perhaps I might even have bumped into @BrendaP back in the day
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: LeilaMay on March 15, 2021, 20:50:32 PM
Well that's great! I'm refreshing my memory with a booklet from the Lace Guild, and I enjoy the concentration when everything else stays out of your head for a while :)

https://www.laceguild.org/product-page/an-introduction-to-bucks-point-lace-by-jean-leader
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: BrendaP on March 15, 2021, 21:50:20 PM
Did any of you go to a Lace Guild convention when it was a weekend event?  I think I went to all of the weekend ones - I was on the committee for many of them.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: SingingSinger on March 16, 2021, 07:40:47 AM
Did any of you go to a Lace Guild convention when it was a weekend event?  I think I went to all of the weekend ones - I was on the committee for many of them.

It's possible the big event I remember was a Lace Guild convention. It was in  a school or college near to Stourbridge (maybe Halesowen?) in the West Midlands, late 80s I think.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: BrendaP on March 16, 2021, 11:00:03 AM
I went to all the Lace Guild weekend conventions from 1992 until about 2010.  None of them were at Stourbridge, where the Lace Guild HQ is.   @SingingSinger you are probably thinking of the one day event in Warley, W Midlands, in 1982.  A bit before my time with the Guild.
Title: Re: Any bobbin lace makers here?
Post by: SingingSinger on March 16, 2021, 18:15:13 PM
I went to all the Lace Guild weekend conventions from 1992 until about 2010.  None of them were at Stourbridge, where the Lace Guild HQ is.   @SingingSinger you are probably thinking of the one day event in Warley, W Midlands, in 1982.  A bit before my time with the Guild.

Ahh, OK, before your time then  :D The event I'm thinking of wasn't as long ago as 1982 and not in Warley. I'm thinking it must have been 1987. Either way it was a very long time ago!!!  :D